Spotlight: Nonfiction Reading and Writing
We begin our reading lives surrounded by stories and poems and grow up to become adults immersed (or drowning as the case may be) in news, memos, how-to manuals, and contracts. How can we help students make the shift from stories to textbooks and other nonfiction genres? Similarly, many students have a hard time making the transition from writing stories to writing letters, persuasive essays, and informational texts. Different genres require different comprehension strategies and vocabulary. Explore this collection of Stenhouse resources:
Nonfiction Matters
Stephanie Harvey
Nonfiction Matters offers teachers the tools to help students explore nonfiction and dig deep to reach more complete understanding of the real world and report these insights in a compelling manner.
Think Nonfiction! (VHS and DVD)
Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis
Join Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis, authors of Strategies That Work, in Barb Smith's reading workshop as her students begin to explore the wild and wooly world of nonfiction where merely getting the facts isn't enough. Nonfiction readers need to merge their thinking with the information to learn, understand, and remember it.
Time for Nonfiction (VHS and DVD)
Tony Stead
Journey with Tony Stead as he explores many amazing ways to make nonfiction reading and writing come alive in the classroom.
Bridges to Independence (VHS and DVD)
Tony Stead
In this series, Tony Stead works with third-grade teacher Lisa Elias Moynihan and first-grade teacher Lauren Benjamin to explore guided reading instruction with early emergent, developing, and fluent readers, using a variety of informational texts.
Is That a Fact?
Tony Stead
Over 85 percent of the reading and writing we do as adults is nonfiction, yet most of the reading and writing in K–3 classrooms is fiction or personal narrative. In Is That a Fact? Teaching Nonfiction Writing K-3, Tony Stead shows you how to open the door to the rich world of nonfiction writing that goes beyond "what I did" narratives and animal reports.
